Metaphor and Imaginal Psychology: A Hermetic Reflection provides the first full-length exploration of the significance of metaphor in post-Jungian psychology. Its portrayal of the mythological figure of Hermes as a personification of metaphor marks an original contribution to the field of metaphor studies. After a 2,500-year exile from philosophy and related areas of study, beginning with Plato’s ejection of the poets from the ideal city-state, metaphor is today experiencing a season of renewal. Among the fields where its significance as a way of seeing, thinking, and feeling has been especially prominent is archetypal psychology, perhaps the most philosophically attuned of psychological disciplines. Approaching the work of James Hillman and other key archetypal psychologists from a poststructuralist perspective, Metaphor and Imaginal Psychology draws insightful comparisons between archetypal psychology and the deconstructive philosophy of Jacques Derrida, a principle theorist of metaphor’s philosophical resurgence. By linking two disciplines that might at first appear as strange bedfellows, Metaphor and Imaginal Psychology underscores the influence of metaphor in reason and emotion, and makes a compelling case for the Mercurial ethos of our postmodern world. Aside from representing essential reading for therapists and theorists working in post-Jungian studies, the book will appeal to readers, students and scholars of literary criticism, psychology, philosophy and mythology.

his issue focuses on imaginal psychology, a newly coalescing orientation to psychology with an ancient taproot. Imaginal psychology stands alongside other major orientations to psychology- cognitive behavioral, depth, humanistic and transpersonal. What is distinctive to imaginal psychology is its care of the soul. The soul expresses itself primarily in images, from whence this orientation derives its name. Some theorists associated with the orientation of imaginal psychology include James Hillman, Thomas Moore, Aftab Omer, Jean Houston, Shawn McNiff, Robert Sardello and Mary Watkins. Articles in this issue showcase the versatility of imaginal psychology to wrestle with difficult social issues that too often fall off the radar of psychology: soullessness and evil, class identity and shame, accountability in broken relationships where harm and injury have been caused; and collective historical trauma

Contemporary psychoanalysis needs less reality and more fantasy; what Michael Vannoy Adams calls the 'fantasy principle'. The Fantasy Principle radically affirms the centrality of imagination. It challenges us to exercise and explore the imagination, shows us how to value vitally important images that emerge from the unconscious, how to evoke such images, and how to engage them decisively. It shows us how to apply Jungian techniques to interpret images accurately and to experience images immediately and intimately through what Jung calls 'active imagination'. The Fantasy Principle makes a strong case for a new school of psychoanalysis - the school of 'imaginal psychology' - which emphasizes the transformative impact of images. All those who desire to give individuals an opportunity to become more imaginative will find this book fascinating reading.

Arguing that psychologists and their predecessors have invariably relied on metaphors in articulation, the contributors to this volume offer a new "key" to understanding a critically important area of human knowledge by specifying the major metaphors.

First published in 1995. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Intersection of Poetry and Jungian Analysis Through Metaphor: In Creation You Are Created explores the relationship between Jungian psychoanalytical intervention and poetry, focusing on the emergence of metaphor, which occurs in both processes, as it happens in neuroscience and fairy tales.Metaphor is a mode of communication that forms a bridge between different experience domains through associative linkages: it refers to a subject by mentioning another for rhetorical effect. Indeed, the prominence of metaphor in Jungian therapy is a characteristic that differentiates it from other forms of treatment. That’s because metaphor—as we will see in this book—is deeply rooted in the body in two ways: It is used to organize bodily sensations cognitively and is located on the border between mind and brain. C. G. Jung uses a metaphor when he observes, in Memories, Dreams, Reflections: “As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.”